I read this essay yesterday by Elaine Holstein -- Jeff Miller's mother -- published May 4, 2000.  I thought of Cindy Sheehan as I read it, and thought of the many thousands of parents who have lost their children much too soon because of the "policies" of our current president.  

I'm looking for help. I want to know who is running in Florida's District 1... out here on the blood red conservative panhandle... nice white sandy beaches though...

I never understood the fascination with Monkey's in a Barrel. You pick up one plastic monkey and use him to hook another, and then another. Ho, hum. If the monkeys varied it might hold my attention, but you pick up Robert Novak and you find Scooter Libby hooked onto him. You pull a little higher and Matt Cooper emerges from the barrel. You lift Bob and Scooter and Matt and Karl Rove is pulled along, too. Lift a little higher and Judy Miller dangles out of the can. Woodward's in there somewhere. Does it really matter when he comes out? The only oddity in the mess is Vivica "no relation" Novak from Time magazine, and she's special only because she managed to hook herself up with Karl Rove's attorney.  How is this to become an interesting game, if it's fixed?  

Another day and another "family values" GOP hypocrite is revealed...but this one isn't going to take the truth lying down.  Tennessee State Senator Jeff Miller was upset that a local paper, the Bradley News Weekly, printed stories about him having a girlfriend before his divorce is finalized.  He doesn't dispute the story mind you, but he doesn't like it.  So he sent out a letter threatening potential advertisers:

"Myself and many others are going to be watching in the next several weeks to identify and remember those in this community that wish to subsidize the destructive nature of this type of publication in our community."

The response from the Bradley News Weekly and its advertisers is a thing of beauty...

This diary considers the Republican party and its relationship to white hegemony.  So Momma D comes to Washington.  Disenfranchised, traumatized, rightfully exasperated, and equipped with too many stories to recount, she arrives to the Congressional hearing ready to air her concerns.  Rep. McKinney is receptive, and Momma Dee understands McKinney to be responsible for this rare opportunity to articulate her concerns.  Momma Dee showers her with gifts.  

Equally outraged, McKinney prefaces the inquiry with three words whose resonance falls on the deaf ears of her Republican colleagues: poverty, war, inequality.  And she repeats: poverty, war, inequality.